Sarah Rainey reviews the first episode of More4's country music drama
Nashville starring Hayden Panettiere.

When Nashville (More4) aired in the US last October, critics couldn’t get enough. It was “compelling”, “terrific” – in fact, it was “the best-written TV series of the fall”. Last night, as the toe-tappin’, rhinestone-rubbin’ country music drama drew to a close in America, Nashville finally came to Britain.

In case y’all missed it (ABC can’t have been pleased that their big drama was relegated to More4’s 10.00pm slot), here’s a recap. Ageing country star Rayna Jaymes (think Reba McEntire, played by Connie Britton) is having a tough week. Her album isn’t selling, her songs are never on the radio and she’s being upstaged by Juliette Turner (think Taylor Swift, played by Hayden Panettiere), a bitchy young upstart with a voice like an auto-tuned Barbie doll.

When Rayna’s manager suggests sharing a tour with Juliette, the old gal isn’t happy. She turns to lead guitarist and old flame Deacon Claybourne (Charles Esten) for advice – only it turns out he’s sleeping with Juliette behind her back. Meanwhile Juliette’s got a drug addict mother who keeps asking for money, and Rayna’s no-good father wants her long-suffering husband Teddy to run for mayor. There’s also Scarlett O’Connor (Clare Bowen), an aspiring poet, who’s not even a singer but has the best voice in the show. Got all that?

The episode had the feel of a glamorous soap – a bit like Desperate Housewives – but with fewer catfights and a better soundtrack. The scenes are slick, the setting authentic and the costumes straight out of Dolly Parton’s wardrobe. Britton is a feisty, likeable lead but it’s hard to take her seriously as “the reigning queen of country” when her voice isn’t all that impressive. We know she can act, but she was lumbered with far too many clichéd lines (“was there a turnip truck that y’all just think I fell off?”) to really shine in this pilot.

Panettiere of Heroes fame was surprisingly well-cast. She had the outrageously flirtatious, trash-talking, flesh-baring Juliette down to a tee, and pulled off the emotional scenes convincingly, too. But the real star of the show was Bowen – waif-like, with a haunting voice, evident in the finale song If I Didn’t Know Better by real-life Nashville duo The Civil Wars. We saw her being discovered in the Bluebird Café, the venue where country starlet Taylor Swift was first heard aged 15.

In a nation where country music is as trendy as flared jeans, Nashville will struggle to be an instant UK hit. Episode one left enough questions unanswered to make me want to watch the second, but Khouri better have some big twists planned before the entire plot takes on the rags-to-riches predictability of a Shania Twain song. If the US reviews are anything to go by, you should stay tuned for an action-packed honky tonk hoedown.